We have decided to go all in with iGuide, and we are starting with 12 cameras in Seattle, Portland, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, Long Island, Raleigh, Philadelphia, Connecticut and Boston. The iGuide camera creates a 3D tour similar to Matterport, but some key differences supported our decision to add iGuide, which I outline below. We will still support Matterport, and we are working on a way as part of the order for you to select one or the other, but we think over time some of the iGuide benefits will outweigh Matterport, and we will continue to wind down the Matterport platform use.
Key Benefits of iGuide
- Faster – about 2X faster than using Matterport with a 360 camera, 3X faster than using the Pro camera. It has far less issues with scan misalignments as well.
- More accurate – we can deliver floor plans that are around 99.5% accurate every time. With Matterport, it was only possible with the Pro camera.
- More Output – we can create CAD files for properties, so this opens up more commercial opportunities with iGuide. In fact, they are sending us commercial jobs now that we have their cameras. We can also scan outdoors, so it is easy to create site plans or add in the scan of a pool house or ADU unit – it is just another level and no line if sight is required between levels. With Matterport this would consume another license, and scanning outside was not possible most of the time.
- More Utility – iGuide charges an upfront fee, not an ongoing subscription to keep a tour alive. As a result, we can make the 3D tour available as part of Claim Home for new homeowners, which for us, gives us a lead opportunity for a post move in scan. See below for more on that. We can also charge less to renew tours. Matterport forces us into a subscription bucket, and if you go over, you are forced into the new, higher monthly fee, until the annual contract is renewed. Not a great model frankly.
- More Control – we can host the iGuide ourselves, or even create our own viewer leveraging their content and our features, such as our 3D space planner and designer. We have some pretty cool working prototypes of custom viewers. Even if we just use the base iGuide downloadable tour, if we hosted it, we could enable our patented Brandkeepr functionality to show your brand on the 3D tour off of Zillow. We can add AI solutions into the 3D tour as well, pass those on to homeowners, etc…this is not possible with Matterport. We will be looking into how to leverage these capabilities soon.
- More Distribution – speaking of Zillow, iGuide is embedded on Zillow at 4 different places, 3 as a 3D Home section and 1 as a virtual tour link, if you put the iGuide link in the MLS as another virtual tour. Matterport is banned from Zillow. iGuide is on 100% of the top 10 sites, Matterport is on 47%, so your listings content gets more visibility.
Some differences
Matterport is a great visual platform, but there are limits. It does have the dollhouse view, which people like. While that is not available today with iGuide, other 360 tours have a dollhouse view, and it could be something they add down the road, as I have told them our customers like that visual.
In addition, Matterport has a nice tool to set up the guided walkthrough, which allows us to make it basically a video like experience. iGuide does have an auto play but it is not very good. We have done our own mock ups with a custom viewer and created an auto play that is more like Matterport, so we may be able to solve that down the road on our own. Stay tuned.
Ultimately, what is best for you, your listings, your clients and customers?
I think having the most accurate floor plans, that can be tied to the home, the homeowner and completely in their control is a huge key. Passing on the floor plans and 3D tour to the new buyer is a component. No other platform allows for this. Everyone else just creates a PDF or JPEG of the floor plan – it is not interactive, it is not tied into a home platform, and in most cases, it is not accurate either. And both Zillow and Cubicasa prohibit any kind of derivative uses – this prevents innovation and homeowner use cases.
See below for how the claim home can ingest the 3D tour and display it in a buyers HomeDiary, with permanent brand attribution to you – Tip: this persistent content placement is one reason we have had multiple agents relist the same house at least 3 times now.
I also think getting placement on the #1 site with over 50% of the market share is a key for your listing. This will get your listing more exposure and traffic and make your sellers a happy customer. This screenshot shows how iGuide is embedded on Zillow today.
Claim Home and Homeowner Services
With iGuide we can include the 3D tour as a Space under the buyer’s HomeDiary account. Your seller can also claim the home and have it as a keepsake, by the way. No other platform allows for this. This year we will be adding homeowner ordering, so if a homeowner wants an accurate floor plan with assets like CAD or DXF files for remodeling, a 3D tour for insurance documentation, or even a site plan for landscape planning, they will be able to order from us. The Claim Home 3D Tour will be a built in lead capture for these services, as we can do an updated scan post move in that shows the buyers possessions, we can leverage the content and AI engines to extract a home inventory list and match it up with onsite tags for appliances, HVAC and other systems.
We also have some geat ideas on new builds where we can do a scan before the drywall is put up, then after, to enable X Ray vision. It’s on our radar and very doable…
